Review: Flip Video Mino

In today’s hurried world, it’s not uncommon for many people to use their digital camera or even camera phone to record life’s moments as movies. While the quality is normally not on par with traditional video cameras, nothing beats the convenience of easy recording “in the moment”.

Through the years I’ve gone from toting around professional video cameras (I have a Broadcast Television background) to having the latest and greatest camcorders. Most recently though, I find that I’m shooting more photos since the video camera is just too bulky, even at its smallest. Enter the Flip Video.

I’ve been playing with both the Flip Video Mino and its predecessor, the Flip Video Ultra, for the last month or so. I was first introduced to the Flip Video concept by a friend who was visiting for the weekend. Instead of pulling out a regular camcorder to shoot some video of his kids running around, he pulled out the Flip. After about two minutes of recording I started asking questions about the video quality, ease of use, etc.. He then navigated to his YouTube account and proceeded to show me how he shoots using the Flip, then using the Flip’s built-in software, mixes the video with music from his collection, and then uploads the video to YouTube. I was skeptical, but then when he showed me a video of his kids playing with their grandfather, set to music, I was hooked.

Flip Video Mino versus Ultra
The Flip Video Mino was introduced in the beginning of June 2008 and features a number of improvements over its predecessor. For starters, it’s approximately 40 percent smaller, features an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery (that will recharge via USB), and now sports fast forward and rewind options. Having used both, the improvements definitely make a big difference.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been using the Flip Video Mino for a few weeks now and have to say that it has exceeded my expectations. For example, if you want to shoot some video you simply power it on. Seconds later it says ready on the screen and you can hit record. Before hitting record it shows you how much battery life you have left and how much time you have left (the Mino will hold 60 minutes of video). The unique design of the Flip Video Mino creates a new video each time you start and stop, so that you can easily skip through videos, and even delete a video in the middle of all others. Another nice feature is the ability to fast forward and rewind. With a lot of starting and stopping you can easily create upwards of 50 different videos, of varying lengths. Going from one to the other, or fast forwarding through one in particular, is a huge benefit.

On the hardware side, the Mino features a built-in USB arm that is hidden until you flip a switch on the side.

It also features speakers, so you can hear the video during playback, volume controls, video out, and even a mount for a tripod. It’s also really sleek looking, and will definitely turn heads as you pull it out of your pocket and start shooting.

As for quality, the video is on par with most digital cameras on the market. Unfortunately, the zoom is where it gets disappointing. The Flip Video Mino only offers a digital zoom (2x). My recommendation, based on personal use, is to try to avoid using it. It does what you would expect a digital zoom to do (pixelates) and you end up with sub-par video quality. However, if you just shoot without the zoom, the quality will impress.

Sharing
There are a variety of ways you can share the video that you create on the Flip Video. The first one involves using the included cable to hook it directly to your television. Once hooked up and powered up, you’ll see exactly what you would on the 1.5″ screen of the Flip, except this time it’s displayed on your television. That’s it! No setup required. You can even perform all of the same functions while watching the videos on your TV, including pause, rewind, fast forward, and delete.

Built-in software
The Flip Video comes with both Mac and PC versions of its software loaded on the device. On the PC, when you plug in the Flip Video it will instantly launch the Flip Video software. It will also load up a few other pieces of software and then present you with the interface that allows you to save the videos to your PC, edit them, e-mail, or publish them to MySpace, YouTube and AOL.

Here’s a screen shot of the editing of a video

You can also capture still photos from the video clips with a simple click.

This is a shot taken from a video of a jet hovering at an air show

The coolest feature is the ability to make your own custom movies (as I mentioned above) and add in your own music. Unfortunately, this ability only works on the PC side (via Muvee video mixing software), but on a Mac you can still edit the movie, and you have iMovie and iDVD, so it’s still relatively effortless to cut together your own video with music.

Another cool feature of the software is the ability to make your own DVDs. You can create them and then have them prepared on the Flip Video itself so that you can bring it to a participating retailer who can then create the DVD, or you can order it online ($19.99 plus shipping) and have it shipped anywhere.

I shot a tremendous amount of video using both the Ultra and the Mino over the past month. Every time I used the Flip I was asked questions about price and usability by people around me. I also found myself just randomly taking videos of varying length, depending on the situation. Be it at an air show, a child’s birthday party, or just while enjoying some play time with my kids, since it fits into my pocket and I barely feel it (it weights a little over 3 ounces), it’s a no-brainer to have it with me at all times.

The biggest question that I’ve been asked time and again is about its video quality. As I mentioned above, it’s on par with most digital cameras, but not digital camcorders. That said, you can’t beat the convenience. Sometimes it’s worth sacrificing a little video quality to be able to capture life’s moments, and that’s what I think the people behind the Flip Video completely captured in this device.

The Flip Mino is one of the more impressive gadgets I’ve used in a long time. Not only does it look nice, but it’s small, weighs practically nothing, and does what it’s designed to do really well. For these reasons and more I’ve awarded it a Geek.com Pick.

Speak Your Mind

isaac marangoni

hey i’ve tried The Source by Circuit City, and Future Shop but they dont carry the Mino. could you tell me where i could?

kate

wondering how the rechargable battery works. i always like to keep a spare rechargeable battery availalbe for my still camera so i don’t run out and have to wait to recharge. also did the same for my cellphone until i got the iphone and can no longer do that. the iphone charger is so small that i simply carry the plug and cable with me.
how large is the charger for the mino? does it really take three hours to charge back up?

thanks.

n/a

Any way I can get around the 20 buck feature and instead make my OWN dvd’s of my Flip videos (rather than pay 20 bucks a pop and someone else doing them?).

Sue

I have one of these before they were called Flip…a 30 minute version that I got at Rite Aid. I think the deal is the same where you can take your video to a have a DVD made. So far, I have just used a few clips from the Pure Digital camera, within other videos where I also included footage and pictures from other camcorders/cameras. You can import the video to an editor such as Ulead Video Studio 7 and then there is no reason you can not output the completed edit to a DVD by yourself. I have put “parts” of the Pure Digital video on a DVD.

http://www.cafepress.com/FLIPfashionista Flip Fashionista

Great review. One of the things that makes the Flip so poular is that you can pick it up in an endless array fo designs, making it almost truly unique to the owner. Our friends are giving these to all their kids and family this holiday season. Everyone loves to uplead to Youtube and such and the Flip makes it so much easier. We were so inpoired by how many people we know that have this on their hoiday list, that we created a line a fashionable designs – raning from Camo to Hot Pink Plaid. Fun!

abby

my main question that i cannot find any where online is can you pause while making a video and lets say move to another spot in your home and countinue shoting with them same video instead of going on the softwear and trying to put to videos together? if you cant is the softwear easy to use when putting two videos together???

tyler

i got mine this christmas and i love it i use my i pods wall charger to charge it up without a computer

http://www.geek.com Joel Evans

you cannot pause your recording but the video software is very easy to use for stitching multiple videos together.

I got one for christmas, I absolutely love it, but there is one problem, I can’t get it to put up a nice picture when i dump it directly to a TV instead of going usb to the computer. It has the cord for it, but a horrible image pops onto the screen (barely can see anything, likes like an old atari game trying to be 3D) and the audio is way quiet, is this just mine that is bad or is everyone having this problem?

http://www.BrianDevlin.com Brian Devlin

I was wondering if anyone is getting less than 60 mins of space. I only have 17 mins avail and the camcorder is empty. Im confused
Does anyone else have this problem?

http://www.geek.com Joel Evans

I’ve had that problem before. Try this:

(from the flip website)

Connect your camcorder to your computer and open your DCIM/100VIDEO folder. This folder contains the videos from your Flip Video camcorder. When your videos are manually renamed within this folder, they are no longer recognized by the Flip Video program. Please ensure that all videos in this folder are carrying their original name. For example, VID#####.AVI where ##### is any number between 00001 and 99998. Then, delete all videos you have previously saved from this folder. Your videos cannot be retrieved once they are deleted, so please make sure you have the videos you wish to keep saved into another folder before doing this.

Also make sure you have deleted any videos that reside outside of the DCIM/100VIDEO folder within your camcorder’s root directory.

After you have deleted all videos, disconnect your camcorder and check on your record time. If you have still not regained your full record time, please reconnect your camcorder and empty your “trash can”. Then, power your camcorder on and off 8 times.

http://www.BrianDevlin.com Brian Devlin

Joel You are the man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It worked!!

THanks soooo much!!
Now I can actually use my flip for more than 15 mins….lol

Brian

Holly

Okay, I’m having the same problem with my Flip but the suggestions haven’t worked so far. Can we clarify…which trash can are we speaking of when you say to empty your trash can? Also, when powering on and off 8 times, does it matter how quickly in succession this happens? Thanks for your time!

Bill

One more thing, on the subject of regaining lost memory space: Empty the trash! Make certain that when you delete the files in the DCIM/100Video file that Joel correctly suggests, that you empty the trash. This additional action cleared my memory entirely and got me back to 60 minutes.

http://myspace.com/theshutterbugs Randy

The flip video ultra works very well for what I do!I video tape local bands and put them on myspace.

http://reedit920@gmail.com Chris

I’ve been reading reviews about the flip ultra and I’m wondering if anyone has used this gadget and
been able to use the videos from it in Windows Movie Maker? If so how is this done? Thanks for the help.

Hilary Ramsden

Hi, I’m also having problems with the time after i’ve deleted videos. THe thing is – I can still shoot but the clock is really off so i have no idea (unlessi do some strange kind of mathematics) how much time I have left. Any more suggestions on this front? Great site and forum by the way, thanks.

Henry

ummm how do i get my itunes music into the vids? any suggestions?

http://lloydgarver.com lloydgarver

Some questions: I’ve heard the audio quality is not so good. Can I shoot a video as if it were a silent film, and then using the Flip software record a voice over? Or at least, can I record the voice over using another program and then import the audio? If I get the HD model, will the videos play on non HD devices? Thank

http://www.facebook.com MAtthias

Hi, I had the Flip Mino for 2 months and it worked great but now it won’t turn on anymore. When I plug it it, the light flashes but the camera just won’t turn on when I press the power button. Are there other people who have had this problem and if so, can they suggest how to fix it.

Kelley

I have the flip mino, is it possible to take still image photos from a video? i have been looking everywhere. im very confused and i need help with it.

curtis

Matthias…i have the exact same problem. Ive had the Mino for 2 weeks, its worked fine…now it wont turn on, even after ive tried the rest methods suggested by Flip customer service…hitting the reset button in the tripod mount screw..then holding power for 10 seconds…….nothing. It wont turn on.

http://www.UnusualLife.com Marlow

I have to disagree about the ease of stitching videos together to make a “movie”. If you stop-and-start and make 10 short videos to stitch together to make one longer movie, it’s almost impossible because the videos are downloaded in the wrong order. So to make a coherent movie, you have to move the first one to the last order, the second video to the second-to-the-last order, and so on. It used to download in the correct order, but since this last “upgrade”, mixes up the videos so they are unusable.

http://www.flashconvterformac.com panamadany

Kelley
Apr. 29, 2009 (5:26 pm)

I have the flip mino, is it possible to take still image photos from a video? i have been looking everywhere. im very confused and i need help with it.

Got one for Christmas and love the versatility and ease of it. Just got the Flip TV and love that as well. Definitely the most user friendly camcorder I’ve ever had.

Two suggestions though that could really help:

1) For closer recording, the orientation of the lens means that
you either cut off heads or feet. The view is plenty wide but not tall enough.

2) You have to have a computer in order to offload videos and
clear the memory for new recording. Mine is the Mino HD with only 1
hour record time. If I’m on vacation, I have to lug my laptop with me to download. If you made a small affordable storage device to help manage this it would be a home run. Emailed the company about it but they don’t have a product and wouldn’t recommend anything.